This invention relates generally to upholstered rocker and rocker/recliner chairs and, more particularly, to a blocking device for automatically preventing rocking motion of the chair when the chair is in the upright position.
There was disclosed in the above-identified co-pending application an upholstered chair having a table concealed in a side arm thereof. The table could be opened into a substantially horizontal position and utilized to hold a drink, food, or other objects. When incorporated in a recliner chair or a stationary lounge chair, the operationally extended table remained substantially horizontal at all times, and provided stable support for any container or object carried thereon. Obviously, however, the same conditions of stability would not apply to a rocker chair and objects carried by the table would be in danger of spilling or falling therefrom. The present invention provides a means for preventing such problems when the table is incorporated in a chair having rocker capability.
Upholstered rocker chairs may be simple, capable of only a simple rocking motion; or compound, comprising a rocker/recliner having the capability of rocking and reclining. In either type of rocker chair, rocking motion is permissible only when the rocker/recliner chair is in the upright position.
Rocker/recliner chairs have long been made with means for arresting or blocking rocking motion when the chair is in a reclined position. In general, those blocking means comprise front and rear attachments to the reclining mechanism sometimes known as landing gear members. A representative example of such arresting means is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,622,198 where it will be seen that front and rear arresting members are actuated by the reclining movement of the chair and moved into operational position where they bear against the base of the chair to prevent rocking motion. When the chair is returned to the upright position, the arresting members are moved into an inoperative position so that rocking motion of the chair is permitted.
In a rocker or rocker/recliner chair equipped with a fold-out table of the type disclosed in the aforesaid co-pending application, it would be desirable to prevent rocking when the table is extended even when the chair is in the upright position. Ideally, the means for blocking rocking motion will become operational automatically when the table is extended so that inadvertent loss of or injury to articles on the table which might result from rocking of the chair is not possible.